Saturday - Lady Railers take down 4A Collinsville 61-27
Team improves to 28-0

[February 06, 2023] The Lady Railers welcomed the Collinsville Kahoks to Roy S. Anderson on Saturday afternoon for a fun afternoon of basketball. At first glance, this game offered up a size difference that put the Lady Railers at a slight disadvantage. But even though Lincoln had to deal with a 6’1 girl and a 6’3 girl in the paint, they were completely unfazed and took the win rather easily by a final score of 61-27.

Tori Geriets and Piper Whiteman were two Lady Railers who definitely took a beating in the lane but they were able to shake off the battle scars and rise above in the end.



Lady Railer captains Kloe Froebe and Becca Heitzig meet the Kahoks captains.

“Their size advantage was definitely a key role in their game,” began Geriets. “We just had to adjust to that by sandwiching her (6’3 Kahok Jenna Scheller) and not allowing that ball to get to the rim. It was definitely different but we have to work on that for future games.”

Whiteman agreed. “The coaches prepared us for this. But we could not prepare for this without playing a couple quarters. “Whiteman just laughed when reminded that she ran into a couple trees and bounced off them during the game. “Yea, a couple times,” she smiled.

Jenna Bowman also played the game with ice in her veins and she showed no signs of being intimidated by the taller competition.

“I’ve been against this before so I knew what to do down there at the post,” said Bowman.

Someone else who knows what to do in these game situations is Kloe Froebe. It’s a good bet that she has spent as much time on a basketball court as Bronny James, probably more.

Here is Froebe’s take on the Collinsville game:

“Playing a team that had a solid in and out game really helped us to prepare and work on the kinks in our defense,” said Froebe. “I think it’s very exciting that we broke the record, but we still have to reach our end goal. Moving into the postseason we know that the competition will only continue to get tougher and tougher so we have to work even harder every practice and game.”

With Saturday’s victory the Lady Railers set a new record for wins in a season with 28 and they are not done yet.

A nice crowd filled the stands on Saturday to cheer on the ladies as they chased that season win record that was previously set by the 1998-99 team.

Lincoln’s 5’9 Kloe Froebe barely lost the tip to Collinsville’s 6’1 Talesha Gilmore but that’s all our 2023 Gatorade Player of the Year nominee for girls basketball lost on Saturday.

The start of the game wasn’t exactly pretty, with the Lady Railers having to adjust to getting their shots blocked, but Froebe still managed to score Lincoln’s first six points and after a two-point field goal by Jenna Bowman, the lead was 8-2 and the Kahoks coach felt it necessary to call a timeout. Twenty seconds after that timeout, the ball was in Lincoln’s court again and this time around Froebe spotted Tori Geriets open. Froebe fired a nice pass into her teammate and the lead was 10-2. As the quarter showed three minutes on the clock, Froebe made another spectacular move in the lane and the lead was now in double-digit mode. Geriets, who was phenomenal at crashing the boards on Saturday despite being sandwiched between two trees, poured in the next four points for the Lady Railers and Lincoln was cruising 16-2. After a Froebe free throw, it was Piper Whiteman nailing a three from the corner and the score was 20-2. The Kahoks scored one other basket in the final seconds of the quarter and Lincoln jogged over to the bench with a confident 20-4 first quarter lead.

Froebe dropped the first two points for Lincoln in the second quarter. Then it was Bowman’s turn again. She is so dangerous from that corner. For real, she has such deadly aim she could single-handedly knock a balloon out of the sky. Luckily for Lincoln, she’s on our team and her back-to-back 3s put the Lady Railers on a successful course for destruction with a 28-7 lead. After Froebe put back the rebound from a Becca Heitzig miss, the Lincoln lead was 30-10. No intention to emphasize Heitzig’s miss here, but to highlight the fact that Becca is back! Actually this is her second game back and she’s working hard to get back into the fast-paced rhythm of the game. It’s all about the team, and the teamwork really shows in the passing abilities of these girls. With Heitzig dishing off to Froebe under the basket the lead was stable at 32-12. A three by Bowman at the 2:00 mark would conclude the Lady Railers first half offense. As the team ran off to the locker room at the half, the score was 35-14.



Lady Railers are ready to run after that record for most wins in a season.

And as just a side note to show you the work ethic of these girls, each and every one of them jog, run, sprint, whatever you name it, they get to where they are going in quick fashion. They hustle. No slackers here.

The third quarter action began pretty nonchalantly but wow did it end with a bang. Froebe started off with a casual two points. Whiteman was able to spot up and then it was ready, aim and fire, down goes that balloon, oops wrong story, down goes that ball through the net. Whiteman gave the Lady Railers a 39-16 lead. Between Whiteman and Geriets in the third quarter, they just had their hands everywhere, like FBI agents searching a politician’s garage. Whiteman had a steal, then it was Geriets on the steal and the outcome was more Lady Railer points on the board. The score was now 43-16 but these girls know they gotta get that up to a 30-point lead. Hold on. It’s coming. With an arm like Tom Brady, it was Froebe on the full court bullet pass to Taryn Stoltzenburg and that was good for two more points. Then it was Froebe just flat-out stealing the ball from the opponent near half-court. Honestly, Froebe could work the streets of NYC as a pickpocket and earn enough money to maintain a Park Avenue lifestyle and probably buy a lot of shoes too. She’s that good. Sometimes she even makes eye contact while swiping the ball, that’s a professional right there. Hey, it worked and the lead was now 47-16 after she tossed that stolen ball through the net. The ladies showed no mercy in the third quarter and the big girls were rather stumped.

After Bowman hit her target again from the three-point line, the lead was 50-16. Froebe made it 52-16 after she went all the way, taking matters into her own hands while the Kahoks tried to chase her down. After Geriets sank a free throw, the Kahoks would manage to score and it looked like with 1.9 seconds left the score would be settled on 53-22 at the end of the third quarter. Wrong. Here comes the BIG BANG!

Froebe fetched the inbounds pass from the opposite end of the court and she dribbled quickly and then just aimed and fired and this was the shot that brought down the….gym. She was just a step away from the half-court line and as she jogged across the words L-I-N-C-O-L-N on the court, the ball just tickled the net and it was beautiful. The crowd erupted as the play was executed perfectly and the Lady Railers were up 56-22. Cool.

And equally as cool was the fact that around the same time in East Peoria, Illinois, Kloe’s little fifth grade brother, Kruz, was sinking his own buzzer-beater for the West Lincoln-Broadwell Wolverines in the Class 1A 7th Grade IESA State Tournament.

In the fourth quarter Heitzig scored a bucket so there was really no need to mention her previous miss earlier in the game. Her name is getting in the story regardless. With the running clock and the Kahoks already defeated, the final quarter flew by for Lady Railer fans. Makinley Knapp made the last Lincoln basket and the final score on this record-breaking afternoon was 61-27.



Former Lady Railers filled the corner bleachers again for the game against Collinsville.

It was also another terrific crowd for the girls. More decades were represented by way of former Lady Railers. They continue to bring their enthusiasm to the corner of the gymnasium. You gotta love a group of girls who get all decked out in their Lady Railer gear and bring the energy.

And bringing the energy to the Lady Railers in the huddle is none other than their coach, Taylor Rohrer, who is juggling a lot these days. Rohrer was proud of her team and agreed breaking the record is great but you can tell by the look in her eyes there is so much more work to be done. She is ready to prepare her team for the February postseason run that also dips into early March and this game against a taller 4A Collinsville team was a nice opportunity for her girls to work on some things.

“I think the girls handled the adjustment well and did a nice job in the second half of handling their bigs,” said Rohrer. “We knew they had two bigs coming into today so we did prepare for them a little bit this morning. I thought the kids made good adjustments at the half after we talked. We played really good defense. Our shot was off tonight. You will have nights where there is a lid on the basket. But we played good defense and we were still able to find some open looks. So it was good. The kids played really hard. Our guards are quick and they are good ball handlers and they did a nice job of getting to the basket and then either dishing it off to one of our post players or kicking it out to one of our shooters and that’s the name of the game.”

Kloe Froebe led the team with 27 points.

Jenna Bowman scored 14 points again for Lincoln. She’s consistent.

Just a little recap of some of the undefeated women’s teams in the news these days:

Lincoln Lady Railers 28-0

South Carolina Gamecocks 23-0

LSU Tigers 23-0

Collinsville falls to 13-15 on the season.

The JV team beat Collinsville 49-25. Lily Holmes led Lincoln with 13 points. Grace Schneider hit double-figures with 10 points.

The JV team is 17-0.

Congratulations, Lady Railers!



Kip Dunham was honored on senior day as the Lady Railers manager.

Also senior manager Kip Dunham was honored in between games by the Lady Railers.

One quick side note:

While exiting the gym on Saturday afternoon, two sisters in their 80s stopped to chat with this LDN reporter. The older sister (85 years old) coerced the younger sister (82 years old) out of the house and to the Lady Railers game. The younger sister then commented how she talked her older sister into buying a smart TV, just so she could watch the Lady Railers on YouTube. This reminded me of the impact these young student-athletes are having on every generation.

And it brings even more attention to a previous comment by Kloe Froebe, who noted recently, “Really that’s our goal, just to make a change in women’s sports in the area.”

(Insert that mic drop here)


Varsity scoring

Lincoln 61
Froebe 27
Bowman 14
Geriets 9
Whiteman 5
Stoltzenburg 2
Heitzig 2
Knapp 2

Collinsville 27
Gilmore 9
Janson 8
Scheller 4
Guerrero 3
Bardwell 3

JV scoring

Lincoln 49
Holmes 13
Schneider 10
Knapp 8
Clark 7
McCloud 6
Adams 5

Collinsville 25
Carlisle 9
Hall 7
Rhinehart 4
Boykin 2
Willis 2
Jones 1

[Teena Lowery]